Word Origin & History

salute c.1380, earlier salue (c.1300), from L. salutare "to greet," lit. "wish health to," from salus (gen. salutis) "greeting, good health," related to salvus "safe" (see safe). The noun is attested from c.1400 as an utterance, gesture, or action of any kind. The military and nautical sense of "display flags, fire cannons, etc., as a mark of respect" is recorded from 1582 (the noun in this sense is from 1698); sense of raising the hand to the cap in the presence of a superior officer is from 1832 (n.), 1844 (v.).

Example Sentences for salute

The superior in rank and station should first salute the inferior.

The Frenchmen returned the salute by a discharge of their muskets and by three cheers.

How all these men would present arms, and salute my children, if they had been born to a throne instead of obscurity!

I returned his salute and passed on, vexed with the apparition.

Crabshaw making no return to this salute, he asked if the conjurer had taken an observation, and told him anything.

"On my life," said the spy, raised his hand in salute and departed.

Almost all the people he met saluted him kindly and cheerfully, only a few haughty Fellani passing without a salute.

Negligently, Merely returned the salute, then picked up Bond's report.

The Bulwan gun gave us his morning salute of ten big shells in various parts of the town.

In automatic reflex, he began to come to the salute but then caught himself.